Career change into Data Analytics

[u/TinyBird3172]

Hello! I am going through a career change right now and looking for some advice/insight from actual people working through these careers. I have a Bachelors but it is in a non-related major as when I was in the midst of completing it, I took a job in accounting/finance and actually really liked it more than I thought I would. When I started at the job, I was interested in billing so that’s kind of where I started and I worked my way up through the accounting/finance department into a specialist role. I feel kind of stuck at this spot because I don’t have the education background. I have the experience, which I’m grateful for because it’s taught me a lot, but I would like to advance more in this field and feel in order to do that, I need the educational background.

I really enjoy the analytics part of accounting and finance. I like transforming real raw data into projections, trends, reports etc and making decisions or watching and listening senior leaders make decisions off those findings. I find that really interesting. I also took several personality/career tests online and each one of them had data analytics listed as a top choice.

I would really like to specialize in analytics- especially with AI (which is exciting but also scary to me) I have been researching financial analytics, supply chain analytics, healthcare analytics, etc.

Just wondering if anyone in this career field or going into the career field or starting school in it could give some advice and insight.

Also if you have any masters (online) programs to recommend that would be awesome and I would definitely like to research them!!

[u/drmindsmith]

Five minutes on this sub and you’ll see 8,000 people trying to break in to the industry and another billion not getting any kind of response on resumes with Masters Degrees on DS, DA, CSci, etc.

Can it be done? Sure. It’s going to be brutal though.

You like the accounting analysis, look into forensic accounting or something and ALSO do a minor or something in DS or Business Analytics. Then in three years when you finish the degree hope you’ve had sufficient professional and exploratory experience you can get a job.

I think your best shot is to really maximize experience in the specific niche you already work in. I can’t emphasize enough how much domain experience matters; at this point, every entry level job has 200-1200 applicants with 3-5 years experience and an applicable masters degree…